Pups Save a Special Friend
by Akito Sohma 101
Summary: My version of Pups Save a Friend, and a sort of prequel to Paw Patrol Joins Forces. The pups have always wondered why Marshall was so clumsy, and when several disasters happen, then a storm rolls in and causes Marshall to get injured after a nasty fall, the pups save him and bring him home, and it's up to Ryder to explain why Marshall is the way he is.


**Ever wondered why Marshall was so clumsy? Well, you're about to find out in this little prequel story to Paw Patrol Joins Forces. **

Marshall was taking a walk around town one morning, feeling like he was having a good day; though it was a little bit cold, the weather was still nice and sunny. As he approached Mr. Porter's café, he figured he could lend him a paw with unloading the produce from his van. Mr. Porter appreciated the extra help, but it wouldn't last long. Marshall tripped and fell over on his face causing Mr. Porter to trip over him and drop all of the produce. Before it could get all gathered up, it all got run over by a passing vehicle.

"I'm so sorry Mr. Porter," said Marshall, scrambling to get up. "I'll help clean up."

"No, Marshall," Mr. Porter replied as he started cleaning up. "You've done enough."

"O-okay," Marshall cowered as he started slowly walking away. As he walked down the street, he felt a small blow of chilly wind; winter was definitely almost here. Unfortunately the wind made Marshall stop in his tracks, not knowing Mayor Goodway was coming his way on her scooter with Chickaletta. Without warning, she accidently ran over his paw, and crashed into the nearby shrub. Marshall took notice and ran to help.

"Mayor Goodway! Are you okay?" he asked in a panic. "I'm so sor…"

"I'm fine, Marshall!" said Mayor Goodway, unaware she actually snapped at him. Chickaletta clucked at him unhappily and walk away with the mayor, leaving Marshall standing there in sadness with a now bruised paw. It didn't hurt too much, so he could still put weight on it; but it still didn't hurt as much as being snapped at. That was the second time today. He once again cowered as he walked back to the Lookout where the rest of the pups were playing volleyball.

"Hey Marshall!" Zuma called out. "Come play with us!"

Marshall thought for a moment; he already caused two disasters today, and he didn't want to cause a third and make his friends mad at him too. So, he shook his head and said no.

"Come on Marshall," said Rocky. "Just one game."

"Well, okay," said Marshall, still not sounding sure. But he walked over, trying to be careful, and gave one strong spike to the ball. Unfortunately the spike was too strong and he caused the rest of the pups to be all tangled up the net, making them not too happy with Marshall.

"Nice spike," said Chase sarcastically.

"I knew I shouldn't have played," said Marshall as he cowered. That was disaster number three, and he knew this would be the result. He pulled on the net and let go, causing it to shake and let the others fall to the ground. When they got up, they sat there and looked at Marshall, as if to say he was right to say no to the offer; at least that's what he thought.

"Guys!" Rubble shouted as he came out of the Lookout. "A new episode of Apollo the Super Pup is on!"

They all howled and ran towards the door, except for Marshall who decided to put the equipment away before going inside, not knowing disaster number four would occur that very moment. Just as the others entered the Lookout and were getting settled, they heard a small crash, followed by a very loud yelp. They all looked at each other before going back outside, only to find Marshall had one of the poles fall on his already bruised paw, causing him to get stuck, and be in a lot more pain which made him yelp some more. They all charged towards Marshall and scrambled to try and get the pole off of him, but they couldn't. Try as they might, it was just too heavy.

"Ryder! We need help outside!" Chase called through his pup tag.

"What's wrong Chase?" Ryder asked, putting his book down.

"It's Marshall!" Chase replied in a panic. "His paw is pinned under one of the poles for the volleyball net!"

"On my way," said Ryder. "Stay with Marshall and keep him calm. Over and out."

The call ended, and the pups followed Ryder's order of trying to keep Marshall calm. It was tough, however, because Marshall was in a great deal of pain to the point where he continued to whimper and yelp.

"Easy, Marshall," said Chase, putting his paw on Marshall's back. "Ryder is on his way down. Just stay calm."

"But, aren't you guys mad at me?" asked Marshall, as he started to pant in pain. "I did get you guys caught up in the net."

"What?" asked Rubble. He was inside when that particular incident happened.

"No, we're not, Marshall," said Skye. "Sure, we were just a little upset, but we could never be mad at you. Your clumsiness is what makes you, well, you."

"But we're not mad, dude," Zuma added.

"Really?" asked Marshall in between pants.

"We're sorry, Marshall," said Rocky. "We promise we won't do it again."

"Especially me," Chase added. "Sometimes I forget this is the one day out of the year that you're clumsier than usual."

The other four pups looked at each other upon hearing that; it was definitely something about Marshall they never knew. Then again there were still things nobody knew about him.

"I'll let Ryder explain it to you pups," Chase continued.

"Here he comes!" said Skye as Ryder ran out of the Lookout towards the pups. Marshall began to whine again as he continued to pant in pain.

"Hold still, Marshall," said Ryder as he began to lift the pole, which was no problem since he was a little stronger than the pups. "Okay, now back up."

Marshall did back up, with a little help from Chase who gave him a light push to help him up. Ryder then set the pole back down, and went to check Marshall's paw, which was now even more bruised and more painful than ever, making Marshall tear up.

"Marshall, what were you doing to make this happen?" Ryder asked.

"I-I was…trying to take th-the net down," Marshall stammered through his tears. "A-and the pole came loose…and…"

Marshall couldn't finish. He was in way too much pain, and the crying was not helping either.

"But Marshall, you know poles are too heavy to put up and take down on your own," said Ryder as he hugged Marshall. "You could've just come to me, or had Rubble use his digger."

"Why didn't I think of that?" Rubble asked himself.

"Maybe it's because we were upset with him, when we shouldn't have been," Rocky replied. Ryder looked at him.

"What for?" he asked, completely confused.

"Total misunderstanding," Chase answered.

"What kind of misunderstanding?" Ryder asked again, with a slight glare. Chase knew that look, and he knew he was the one who had to explain everything.

"I'm sorry, Ryder," he said looking down to his paws. "I keep forgetting this is the day he's clumsier than usual; and I keep forgetting it's the anniversary of…you know; and the others have no idea because we haven't told them yet."

"Told us what?" asked Rocky.

"I'll explain in a minute, but for now we need to get Marshall inside, and I need to get Katie over here to help him," said Ryder, just as Marshall was getting up. "What is it Marshall?"

"They weren't the only ones to scold me because of my clumsiness today," Marshall added. "Mr. Porter and Mayor Goodway scolded me earlier. That's four disasters today."

"Wow, that's a new record," said Chase. "Usually it's two or three."

"What happened with the first two, Marshall?" asked Ryder.

"I was trying to help Mr. Porter unload his van when I tripped and spilled everything," Marshall replied. "I offered to help clean up, but he said I had done enough. And then Mayor Goodway ran over my paw and crashed into one of the hedges by Town Hall, and she snapped at me. That's when I came back here, and messed up the volleyball game."

"Was it the same paw?" Ryder asked again. Marshall nodded.

"Marshall! Your nose is bleeding!" Skye exclaimed in a panic.

"That's from when I fell on my face while helping Mr. Porter," said Marshall as Ryder grabbed a rag from his pocket and covered Marshall's bleeding nose.

"Delayed reaction," he said as Marshall pulled his face out of the rag and started to limp away, whimpering as he went. Ryder and the pups watched him in worry.

"What do we do now, Ryder?" asked Chase.

"I'll need you to call Katie and ask her to come over," Ryder answered as he took out his pup pad. "I need to call Mr. Porter and Mayor Goodway, I need to talk to them about this personally."

"Katie's not gonna be happy," Chase muttered under his breath.

Ryder called Mr. Porter and Mayor Goodway, and they gladly agreed to come over to talk. Katie arrived first, and as Chase thought, she was very displeased after hearing about what had happened to Marshall throughout the day. Like Ryder and Chase, Katie also knew Marshall since day 1, and even helped him in the beginning when he was very small. Marshall sat in the backyard on one of the cliffs that overlooked the bay, and watched as a storm started to roll in. When it started raining, Marshall just let it fall on him and he found it very soothing after the day he had; unbeknownst to him that disaster number five would be occurring at any moment.

Mr. Porter arrived at the Lookout with Alex, who really wanted to see Ryder, and Mayor Goodway arrived shortly after with Chickaletta in her purse; which meant they arrived just in time to witness disaster number five. With all the rain that had fallen in the short amount of time since it started, the cliff where Marshall was sitting was starting to get weak to the point where it started to crumble, causing it to fall, along with Marshall, who once again let out a loud yelp upon landing on the ledge below. Everyone heard that yelp, and ran to the edge and saw Marshall lying on the ledge whimpering a lot more now that his paw was not only bruised, but broken. They scrambled to try and get him back up; which consisted of Skye carrying Ryder in her harness so he could pick up Marshall, and bring him back up to the Lookout. As soon as they got inside, Katie put a splint on Marshall's paw and wrapped it up, and the other pups brought a blanket and hot water bottle to warm him up.

"His paw is broken in two places below the elbow," said Katie. "So long as he continues to rest, it should heal up in due time."

"Thanks Katie," said Ryder as he walked with Katie to another room where everyone else was. "Mr. Porter, Mayor Goodway, I would like to thank you for coming. As you most likely already know, there have been a couple of incidents that occurred in town today where Marshall was involved. Now what has me in a total loss is why he was scolded for those incidents; Mr. Porter, when you tripped over Marshall, he had already tripped on the sidewalk and face planted on the pavement, causing him to get a bleeding nose. Mayor Goodway, the reason you lost control of your scooter and crashed is because you ran over his paw."

Mayor Goodway gasped. She really had no idea.

"But those weren't the only incidents," Ryder continued. "There were three more that occurred here at the Lookout, two of which caused further injury to his paw. Now, many of you never knew this, Chase already knows this, but this is the one day out of the year where Marshall is clumsier than usual, and the record for the amount of disasters that occurs has been broken with five disasters in total, topping last year which was only three. I'm going to explain why Marshall gets super clumsy on this day every year; three weeks after I found Chase, that very day was the day of that fatal car accident. We found Marshall nearby, he was just a tiny little white puppy, and when I brought him to Katie's we discovered he was just hours old and he had to be bottle fed for 6 weeks."

"Wait a minute," Mayor Goodway chimed in. "If he was just hours old when you found him, then today is his…"

"Birthday," Ryder finished. "And for some odd reason or another, he remembers that incident, and always gets the feeling it was his fault, when really it wasn't. For that reason, he's clumsier than ever, and it's partly why he's never told anyone when his birthday was; because he doesn't celebrate it."

"He doesn't celebrate his birthday?" asked Rubble, looking as if he was about to cry as both Chase and Ryder shook their heads saying no.

"Poor Marshall," said Skye, who was also looking like she was going to cry. Chase put his paw on her back for comfort.

"Ryder, if Marshall is a Dalmatian, then why did you say he was a white puppy?" asked Alex.

"Dalmatian puppies are white when they're born," Ryder answered. "They don't start getting their spots until they're about four weeks old. At that point, Marshall was started to show some signs he was gonna be a clumsy pup. Something we always found kind of funny."

Katie nodded in agreement.

"Well, don't we feel foolish," said Mayor Goodway.

"We owe Marshall a big apology," said Mr. Porter. And they did just that, and knowing Marshall, he was very forgiving, and was appreciated more and more each day. He was walking again within a week, without putting weight on his paw, which healed after another couple of weeks. And every clumsy act he did was funny each time, until there came a day when he started getting less clumsy every day. But no matter what, Marshall was special in his own way, according to everyone.


End file.
